BOB WICKERSHAM
Amazing Animators No. 1
BOB WICKERSHAM
Robert Gordon Wickersham, alias “Bob Wick”, nasce il 5 agosto 1911 a Colima, in Messico.
Poco più che ventenne approda all’animazione presso lo studio di Charles Mintz, poi passa a quello di Hugh Harman e Rudy Ising, che producono cortometraggi per la Warner Bros. Nel 1933, dopo aver lavorato brevemente per Ub Iwerks, è allo Studio Disney, dove anima cortometraggi di Topolino, Silly Symphony e Paperino fino al 1937, lavorando con registi quali Wilfred Jackson, Dave Hand, Ben Sharpsteen e Jack Kinney. È tra gli animatori di The Old Mill, che vince un premio Oscar.
Nel 1938 passa in forza allo Studio dei fratelli Fleischer, dove lavora a diversi cortometraggi nel team di Shamus Culhane, per dedicarsi poi anche alla sceneggiatura. Nel 1941 approda allo studio Columbia/Screen Gems, dove per cinque anni contribuisce – prima come animatore, poi come regista e sceneggiatore – a vari cortometraggi, tra i quali spiccano quelli che hanno per protagonisti The Fox and the Crow.
Lasciata la Screen Gems, si dedica ai fumetti, disegnando per gli albi della DC Comics le prime storie con The Fox and the Crow. Fa inoltre parte del team di disegnatori diretto da Jim Davis, che produce storie con “animali buffi” per editrici quali ACG/Creston e Better/Standard, ma la serie cui si dedica più a lungo è The Kilroys, incentrata su una buffa famiglia, che disegna dal 1947 al 1955 prima su testi di Hubie Karp, poi suoi.
Con Davis e altri disegnatori/animatori del suo team quali Jack Bradbury e Gil Turner, nel 1946 realizza anche un film animato promozionale per il piccolo studio Carry-Weston.
Nel 1948 fonda lo studio TV Spots, che per circa sette anni produce cortometraggi pubblicitari. Nei primi anni Cinquanta lavora come animatore anche per Warner Bros. e Terrytoons. Lascia definitivamente i fumetti nel 1955, allorché si unisce allo studio Swift-Chaplin, del quale è proprietario il suo amico Howard Swift e dove crea diversi personaggi per cortometraggi pubblicitari.
Scompare il 21 aprile 1962 a Chicago, Illinois, lasciando quattro figli (avuti da tre mogli diverse e adottati) e undici nipoti.
Robert Gordon Wickersham, aka “Bob Wick”, was born on 1911 in Colima, Mexico.
When he was about twenty he made his debut in animation at the Charles Mintz studio, then he went over to Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising, who were making shorts for Warner Bros. In 1933, after briefly working at Ub Iwerks, he was at Disney, where he animated Mickey Mouse, Silly Symphony and Donald Duck shorts until 1937, working with such directors as Wilfred Jackson, Dave Hand, Ben Sharpsteen, and Jack Kinney. He was one of the animators of the Academy Award-winning The Old Mill.
In 1938 he moved to the Fleischer studio, where he contributed to several shorts in the team headed by Shamus Culhane, then also working as a story man. In 1941 he was at Columbia/Screen Gems, where he would stay for five years, contributing–as an animator, director and story-man–to various shorts, among which those starring The Fox and the Crow stand out.
After leaving Screen Gems, he turned to comics, drawing the first few Fox and the Crow stories for DC Comics. He was part of the team headed by Jim Davis, which produced funny animal comics for ACG/Creston and Better/Standard, but the series he worked on the longest was The Kilroys, focusing on a funny family, which he drew from 1947-55 on scripts by Hubie Karp, and later his own.
With Davis and other animators and artists in the Sangor Studios team like Jack Bradbury and Gil Turner, he worked on a 1946 promotional animated film for the small Carry-Weston studio.
In 1948 he founded TV Spots, producing animated TV commercials for about seven years. In the early fifties he animated at Warner Bros. and Terrytoons. He left comics in1955, when he joined the Swift-Chaplin studio, owned by his friend Howard Swift, where he created various characters for TV commercials.
Wickersham passed away in Chicago, Illinois, on April 21, 1962, leaving four children (from three different wives or adopted) and eleven grandchildren.
FILMOGRAFIA / FILMOGRAPHY
[NOTE: All dates in this section are day/month/year]
Studio: CHARLES MINTZ c. 1932
Animatore
1932-1933 Scrappy
Studio: HARMAN-ISING/WARNER BROS. 1932-1933
Animatore / Animator
1933 Bosko
Studio: UB IWERKS c. 1933
Animatore / Animator
Studio: DISNEY 1933-1937
Animatore / Animator
09/12/1933 The Night Before Christmas [Silly Symphony]
03/03/1934 Playful Pluto [Mickey Mouse]
16/06/1934 Mickey’s Steam Roller [Mickey Mouse]
14/07/1934 The Flying Mouse [Silly Symphony]
29/09/1934 Mickey Plays Papa [Mickey Mouse]
17/11/1934 The Dognapper [Mickey Mouse]
10/01/1935 Mickey’s Man Friday [Mickey Mouse]
23/02/1935 The Band Concert [Mickey Mouse]
20/04/1935 The Robber Kitten [Silly Symphony]
29/06/1935 Who Killed Cock Robin? [Silly Symphony]
31/08/1935 Pluto’s Judgment Day [Mickey Mouse]
26/10/1935 Three Orphan Kittens [Silly Symphony]
14/12/1935 Broken Toys [Silly Symphony]
28/03/1936 Elmer Elephant [Silly Symphony]
30/05/1936 Thru the Mirror [Mickey Mouse]
26/09/1936 Three Blind Mouseketeers [Silly Symphony]
19/12/1936 More Kittens [Silly Symphony]
15/05/1937 Little Hiawatha [Silly Symphony]
05/11/1937 The Old Mill [Silly Symphony]
26/11/1937 Pluto’s Quin-puplets [Mickey Mouse]
29/11/1937 Lonesome Ghosts [Mickey Mouse]
27/05/1938 Wynken, Blynken and Nod [Silly Symphony]
17/06/1938 Polar Trappers [Donald and Goofy]
09/09/1938 Mickey’s Parrot [Mickey Mouse]
04/11/1938 Donald’s Golf Game [Donald Duck]
13/11/1940 Fantasia [The Sorcerer’s Apprentice section]
Studio: FLEISCHER 1938-1941
Animatore / Animator
17/05/1940 A Kick in Time [Color Classic]
20/09/1940 Popeye Meets William Tell [Popeye]
Sceneggiatore / Story Man
17/01/1941 All’s Well [Gabby]
21/03/1941 Gabby’s Swing Cleaning [Gabby]
18/07/1941 Copy Cat [Animated Antics]
15/08/1941 It’s a Hap-Hap-Happy Day [Gabby]
22/08/1941 Vitamin Hay [Color Classic]
Sceneggiatore e animatore / Story man and animator
04/12/1941 Mr. Bug Goes to Town
Studio: COLUMBIA/SCREEN GEMS 1941-1946
Animatore / Animator
25/12/1941 Red Riding Hood Rides Again [Color Rhapsody]
Animatore e Regista / Animator and Director
05/11/1941 The Fox and the Grapes [Color Rhapsody with Fox and Crow]
26/12/1941 The Tangled Angler [Fables]
Regista / Director
02/02/1942 Under the Shedding Chestnust Tree [Fable]
20/03/1942 Concerto in B Flat Minor [Color Rhapsody]
30/04/1942 Wolf Chases Pigs [Fable]
19/07/1942 Woodman Spare That Tree [Color Rhapsody with Fox and Crow]
04/09/1942 Song of Victory [Color Rhapsody]
09/10/1942 Tito’s Guitar [Color Rhapsody with Tito]
27/11/1942 Toll Bridge Troubles [Fox and Crow]
29/01/1943 Slay It with Flowers [Color Rhapsody with Fox and Crow]
02/04/1943 Willoughby’s Magic Hat [Phantasy with Willoughby Wren]
14/05/1943 Plenty Below Zero [Fox and Crow]
21/06/1943 Tree for Two [Color Rhapsody with Fox and Crow]
23/08/1943 A-Hunting We Won’t Go [Color Rhapsody with Fox and Crow]
30/09/1943 Room and Board [Fox and Crow]
19/11/1943 Imagination [Color Rhapsody]
25/11/1943 Way Down Yonder in the Corn [Fox and Crow]
04/02/1944 Magic Strength [Phantasy with Willoughby Wren]
28/04/1944 The Dream Kids [Fox and Crow]
04/05/1944 Sadie Hawkins Day [Li’l Abner]
28/07/1944 Mr. Moocher [Fox and Crow]
13/10/1944 Porkuliar Piggy [Li’l Abner]
27/10/1944 Be Patient, Patient [Fox and Crow]
19/01/1945 The Egg Yegg [Fox and Crow]
18/05/1945 Rippling Rhythm [Color Rhapsody]
12/07/1945 Booby Socks [Phantasy]
01/11/1945 Phoney Baloney [Fox and Crow]
22/02/1946 Catnipped [Flippy]
11/04/1946 Foxy Flatfoots [Fox and Crow]
06/06/1946 Snap Happy Traps [Phantasy]
20/06/1946 Picnic Panic [Rhapsodies]
29/08/1946 Mysto-Fox [Fox and Crow]
14/09/1946 Silent Tweetment [Flippy]
06/02/1947 The Uncultured Vulture [Phantasy]
13/02/1947 Cockatoos for Two [Color Rhapsody]
29/05/1947 Mother Hubba Hubba Hubbard [Color Rhapsody]
Regista e Sceneggiatore / Director and Story Man
25/03/1945 Kuku Nuts [Fox and Crow]
12/07/1945 Fiesta Time [Color Rhapsody with Tito]
20/06/1946 Picnic Panic [Color Rhapsody with Tito]
Studio: CARRY-WESTON 1946
Regista / Director
00/00/1946 The Inside Story of Seaman Joe
Studio: TV SPOTS 1948-1954
Proprietario, Animatore e Regista / Owner, Animator and Director
1949-1955 Cortometraggi pubblicitari / TV Commercials
Studio: WARNER BROS. 1951
Animatore / Animator
06/10/1951 Big Top Bunny [Merrie Melodies with Bugs Bunny]
05/01/1952 Who’s Kitten Who? [Looney Tunes with Sylvester and Hippety Hopper]
01/03/1952 Thumb Fun [Looney Tunes with Daffy Duck]
Studio: TERRYTOONS c. 1952-1953
Animatore / Animator
Studio: SWIFT-CHAPLIN c. 1955-1962
Ideatore personaggi, Regista e Produttore / Character Designer, Director and Producer
c. 1955-62 Cortometraggi pubblicitari / TV Commercials Jolly Green Giant et al
FUMETTOGRAFIA / COMICOGRAPHY
COMIC BOOKS
Editore/Publisher: AMERICAN COMICS GROUP (aka CRESTON)
Basketball Boo-Boo – The Kilroys #54 (1955).
Cindy – Cookie #4-9 (1946-47) [anche testi / also scripts].
Coach Casey – Ha Ha Comics #78 (1951).
Copertine – Cookie #8 (1947); Ha Ha Comics #96, 97, 99 (1954-55); The Kilroys #1-37, 40-43, 45, 51-54 (1947-55); Teepee Tim #101 (1955).
Daniel Spaniel – Ha Ha Comics #31, 34, 38, 44, 47, 56 et al (1947-50).
Dippy Wolf – Ha Ha Comics #75 (1950).
Fenwell Fox – Ha Ha Comics #60 et al (1948-49).
“Hubba” Hubbard – The Kilroys #16, 18, 19 (1949).
I. M. Took – Ha Ha Comics #77 (1950).
Jackson – The Kilroys #33 (1951).
Jackson and Portia – The Kilroys #31 (1951).
Joe Jive – Cookie #32 (1951).
Katie Kilroy – The Kilroys #11, 16, 20, 29, 32, 34, 36, 38, 43-46, 52 (1947-55).
Kid Sister – Cookie #55 (1955).
Kilroy and Kompany – The Kilroys #18 (1949).
Kilroy Kapers – The Kilroys #19, 27, 46, 49 (1949-50/54).
The Kilroy Kids – The Kilroys #54 (1955).
The Kilroy Krew – The Kilroys #21, 26, 33, 38 (1949-52).
Kilroy Kut-ups – The Kilroys #19, 24, 25, 27, 46, 48 (1949-50/54).
The Kilroys – The Kilroys #1-42, 44, 47 (1947-54).
Leapin’ Looey – Ha Ha Comics #79 (1951).
Mister Completely – Giggle Comics #89 (1953).
Mr. Slicker – Ha Ha Comics #64 (1949).
Monty, the Miracle Mouse – Giggle Comics #71 (1950).
Natch – The Kilroys #1-18, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, 28, 32-35, 37, 39, 41-44, 47, 50, 51, 52 [R] (1947-55).
Natch and Grandma – The Kilroys #41 (1953).
Natch and Jackson – The Kilroys #15, 16, 19, 22, 24, 25, 29, 37, 40-42, 45 (1948-53).
Natch Kilroy – The Kilroys #49 (1954).
Our Kid Sister – Cookie #6-16 (1947-48); The Kilroys #28 (1951) [anche testi / also scripts].
Pee Wee – Ha Ha Comics #22 (1945).
Peggy – The Kilroys #33 (1951).
“Pop” – The Kilroys #45 (1953).
Ricky – Cookie #31 (1951).
Solid Jackson – Cookie #51 [R] (1954); The Kilroys #9, 12, 15, 17-23, 25, 27-32, 34, 35, 38-40, 43-45, 48-53, 54 [R] (1948-55) [anche testi / also scripts in 1954-55].
Teepee Tim – Cookie #2 (1946); Ha Ha Comics #96-99 (1954-55); Teepee Tim #101, 102 [R?] (1955).
That Kilroy Krew – The Kilroys #47 (1954).
Those Kilroy Kids – The Kilroys #31, 48 (1951/54).
Wacky Wolf – Giggle Comics #33, 38, 39, 42, 43, 46, 47, 59, 61, 63, 64 (1946-49).
Whoo-Doodit – Funny Films #1, 4, 8, 9, 12, 13 et al (1949-51).
Witch Hazel – Giggle Comics #48, 63 (1947/49).
Editore/Publisher: BETTER (aka STANDARD, NEDOR, PINES)
Adam – Coo Coo Comics #40, 41 (1948); Goofy Comics #18, 21, 29 et al (1947-48); Happy Comics #30 (1949); Supermouse #4 (1950).
Bruno Bear – Coo Coo Comics #34 (1947).
Colonel Punchy Penguin – Coo Coo Comics #37-44 (1948-49).
Copertine – Coo Coo Comics #32, 33 (1947).
Custer Bear – Coo Coo Comics #28, 30 (1947).
Li'l Benjamin Bear – Goofy Comics #26 (1948).
Li’l Chief Papoose – The Black Terror #24 (1948).
Oinkie – Coo Coo Comics #27 (1946) [Wick?].
Rusty and Dusty – Goofy Comics #16 (1946).
Whitey – Happy Comics #29, 30 (1948-49).
Editore/Publisher: DC COMICS (aka NATIONAL PERIODICAL PUBLICATIONS, INC.)
Copertine – Real Screen Comics #2-23, 24 [?], 25, 27, 30 [?], 31-35, 40-43, 46 (1945-52); Real Screen Funnies #1 (1945).
Flippity and Flop – Real Screen Comics #1- -46 (1945-52).
The Fox and the Crow – Real Screen Comics #2- -46 (1945-52); Real Screen Funnies #1 (1945).
Little Tito and His Burrito – Real Screen Funnies #1 (1945).
Polar Playmates – Real Screen Comics #5-13 (1946-47).
Punchy Penguin – Real Screen Comics #14 (1947).
Tito and His Burrito – Real Screen Comics #2- -46 (1945-52).
Editore/Publisher: MARVEL
Copertine – The Kellys #23-25 (1950).
The Kelly Kids – The Kellys #25 (1950).
The Kellys – The Kellys #23-25 (1950).
Mike and Danny – The Kellys #23, 24 (1950).
Nelly the Nurse (1950).
Pat Kelly – The Kellys #23 (1950).
Sister Pat – The Kellys #25 (1950).
Willie – Georgie Comics #30, 31 (1951).